Virtual assistant is the profession of the future. What is a virtual assistant

Virtualdigitalassistant is a web service and/or application for smartphones and personal computers, who takes on the functions of a personal secretary to optimize daily activities. It is capable of planning a schedule, reminding about business and meetings, searching for information necessary for the owner: selecting places of recreation and entertainment, searching and online booking tickets, ordering a taxi. It is also an electronic interlocutor that responds to voice calls. Heself-learns, adapting to the individual characteristics of a particular person, provides information, taking into account the context - the user’s location, the scope of his interests, and habits.

This is the fundamental difference between virtual digital assistants and personal assistants of previous generations. The latter regularly perform the function of organizers, planning the day and reminding about meetings. But they will not cancel, say, a meeting in Hong Kong if the owner's flight is delayed and he is actually in Moscow. Virtual digital assistants take this into account as they are closely tied to location-based services. In addition, they use all layers of information about the user available to them.

Virtual digital assistant: history of creation

Independent non-profit research institute SRI International (California, USA), known as a former division of Stanford University, which previously implemented such technological innovations as computer mouse and the prototype of the Internet, - in 2005, united the efforts of researchers with an ambitious goal: to create a digital assistant capable of cognition, learning and systematization. The project was called CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes) and was part of the PAL (Personalized Assistant that Learns) program - creating artificial intelligence for the needs of the military.

Thus, initially it was a defense order. Researchers came up with ideas and presented prototypes of virtual assistants that meet the task - unprecedented feedback between the user and the service. Finally, in 2009, the completion of work on the CALO project was officially announced. $150,000,000 was invested in it, and the US Army received a digital assistant that can parse mail, report on the contents of emails, and create schedules for meetings.

Siri: the ultimate virtual digital assistant

Siri, a personal scheduling service for smartphones, is aimed at the masses. Siri converts a voice or text message into search query. By given parameters it searches for places of recreation and entertainment, services located close to the point where the user is located, and also performs many other functions of a personal secretary - and sometimes does this with unobtrusive humor embedded in it by the developers. If you ask Siri to find an Italian restaurant with a romantic setting, it will do so by detecting the user's location and returning a list of nearby restaurants that have "romantic setting" in their reviews.

In April 2010, the project was purchased by Apple. And starting with the iPhone 4S, the Siri app became standard. software. Since then, the functionality and quality of speech recognition of this virtual digital assistant has improved markedly. Siri has learned to interact with a huge number of applications and services for an even more individual approach to the user. However, clearly not all of them are aware of the capabilities of a personal digital assistant. Two years after the launch of Siri on the iPhone 4S, it turned out that only 15.2% of users Apple smartphones Have you tried it at all?use this service .

GoogleNow, Cortana and other competing assistants

On the platform Apple Siri knows no competition. However, she is not the only one in the big digital world. Let's say there is a Rearden Personal Assistant - -a service from Rearden Commerce, launched in 2008 for corporate clients in the USA and UK. It helps organize a business trip and order all related services, combining scattered information from the websites of travel companies, airports, restaurants, car rentals - and thus helping to plan your schedule and expenses. As befits a virtual assistant, the service takes into account the user’s location and, if necessary, makes changes to his schedule, independently notifying partners about rescheduling meetings.

There are also startup projects, in particular, the Russian ePythia, a geolocation service and task scheduler for smartphones. The service sends the user a reminder of the task when he finds himself in a certain place. The project was launched in 2010 and is now at the open beta testing stage.

However, the “big three” of virtual digital assistants have already been decided. This is in addition to Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and Google's Google Now.

Cortana for Windows Phone was introduced in April 2014. In essence, it has the same functions as Siri: plans, reminds, sends messages, recognizes music, searches for nearby places. It also responds to voice and text messages. If you allow her, she will read email, messages on social networks, and your contact list in order to be as useful as possible. All information is stored by the virtual assistant in a notepad; it can be edited, leaving information about important places and people. The fundamental difference between Cortana and Siri is that the service can not only respond to requests, but also make calendar entries, formulate reminders, analyzing the history of user actions, that is, actually predict his requests.

Google's virtual assistant has gone even further in this direction, the service Google Now. Predictive search is his specialty. The company defines the app's strategy this way: Google Now finds the information you need before you even ask a question. For this, the service uses everything available options: history of requests, movements, virtual communication. This allows him, say, to offer the user a cozy cafe as soon as the thought of drinking coffee comes to him. Among the advantages of Google Now is a convenient interface from a set of cards that is easy to customize to suit your needs.

Virtual digital assistants, predictive search and the future of SEO

In the competition between virtual digital assistants, the winners are those that allow them to save more time - the main and most valuable resource of our time. Thus, predictive-oriented assistants , look more promising. Their chances of popularity are much higher, because with predictive search the user does not have to spend a single second formulating a query.

The concern associated with the intrusion of such a virtual assistant into a person's private life is justified and understandable. However, saving time and effort is increasingly inclining people to delegate the authority to make everyday decisions to new services, voluntarily opening wide access to personal information for this purpose. Predictive search tool services take advantage of this opportunity, constantly increasing the number of applications and information sources used. It is in the emphasis on Today we see the potential for the development of virtual digital assistants.

For players -The industry cannot ignore this trend. A situation when it is no longer actually the person himself, but his virtual assistants who will send requests and make a choice in favor of a particular product or service, offering the user ready-made solution, is a matter of the not too distant future. Therefore, it is important to understand the criteria by which these assistants select options. While these criteria are not entirely clear, it is worth thinking about them and trying to find them now.

A virtual assistant is an Internet resource or software for mobile devices and PCs, which, in essence, performs all the functions of a personal secretary for the user. The assistant can solve problems of changing and planning a work schedule, help with organizing and performing everyday tasks and searching for the data a person needs on the Internet.

One of the most important differences between the virtual assistant and the generations of schedulers that came before it is that virtual assistant the work takes into account contextual circumstances - that is, a number of conditions in which the user finds himself are taken into account. This may include its geolocation and other circumstances.

A virtual assistant can create various reminders, select places to stay, help in finding and booking tables in establishments and various types of tickets, and order a taxi at an address. The assistant can learn independently, taking into account completed tasks, analyzing the behavior and all the user’s hobbies.

History and development of digital assistants

In 2005, thanks to an initiative from an independent non-profit research institute from California, SRI International, the efforts of a number of researchers were combined to bring to life a very ambitious and unusual idea - to create a virtual assistant that would have the ability to absorb knowledge, self-learn and systematize information . The project was originally called CALO, and it was part of the PAL program, which developed artificial intelligence to serve military purposes and needs.

This means that the project was originally a defense project. Researchers were putting forward ideas and creating prototypes of digital assistants that would be able to satisfy such a specific task - to create a connection between the user of such a service and the service itself. As a result, 2009 was a success for the researchers, and work on the project was completed. The state army received a virtual assistant that could sort mail emails, draw up reporting documents on their content and create schedules of meetings and appointments.

This project for defense needs was the basis for Siri - a project of a commercial nature, which at the moment included in iPhone software. Today, not only smartphones from Cupertino can boast of a virtual assistant - almost every mobile device supports technology. Moreover, the user can choose which virtual assistant to use. And there are already a lot of them.

Google Now Assistant

This is a virtual assistant from the popular search giant. Able to analyze your email and request history in search engine. Supported on Android OS, iOS, and also allows installation of an assistant in Google browser Chrome.

• How is it different? High speed work. Virtual assistant Has increased accuracy when creating routes. Has a lot of information about booking your tickets and tables, about flights and transfers. It can interact with a number of other applications, manage your notes and calendar, analyze messages and control music playback.

• Disadvantages of an assistant. Sometimes the virtual assistant is overly proactive (for example, it can demonstrate the results of matches between teams that are not of interest to you, or provide directions to your home from familiar places). It is useless in the process of managing a smart home. All workflows for integrating the assistant with third party applications, apparently, have been paused.

• The humanity of the assistant. Located at zero. Not at all conducive to communication. Apart from the word “Google” it has no name. But the company is trying to constantly improve its own virtual assistant, which is not surprising, given its level. Recently, Google managed to use neural networks to make the assistant speak more humanely, but not yet in Russian.

Apple's Siri

This is a virtual assistant from a company from Cupertino that can communicate with the user and provide him with various recommendations. You can activate it by holding down the Home key on iPad devices or iPhone.

• Advantages. Easy to use on iOS devices. Easily recognizes human speech. Has a high level of awareness of current news, weather conditions, sporting events, new movies, routes and nearby businesses. He is capable of recommending something for television viewing. It can interact with a number of smart home elements.

• Flaws. Low level of communication with many third party programs and resources. The speed is slower than that of some other virtual assistants.

• The humanity of the assistant. He is not able to conduct a full dialogue, but in some moments he can demonstrate a certain wisdom. The woman's voice sounds quite natural.

This is a virtual assistant built into devices from Amazon, Fire TV set-top boxes. It is expected to appear in a number of other devices, for example, in alarm clocks or feeders for pets.

• Advantages. Has the ability to play music and read news aloud from certain news sources. Provides data on weather conditions, traffic jams and some other parameters. It is possible to order goods from Amazon's Prime resource, as well as pizza delivered by voice. It has an open API, which allows it to easily work with all other applications.

• Negative points. You can control the virtual assistant only while in your apartment. The assistant does not work with smartphones.

• The humanity of the assistant. He has the ability to answer a complex question with humor, but immediately turns the dialogue into the category of some kind of acquisition.

Microsoft Cortana

It is a digital voice assistant that can be controlled by entering queries via text or voice. Available for use on iOS, Android or Windows. Able to answer and anticipate user questions.

• Advantages. Can manage your calendar, notes and reminders. Tracks postal items, can set an alarm and find news notes in Bing. Monitors weather forecasts and other information. The virtual voice assistant easily interacts with a number of applications on Windows, and has also recently been able to conduct a dialogue with other bots using Skype.

• Negative aspects. At the moment, it is not a finished, final product, and only a limited number of San Francisco residents can now use it.

• The humanity of the assistant. Extremely high. It is achieved due to the fact that answers to various questions are formed, first of all, by people.

• Advantages. The company promises that their product will be able to understand even quite complex issues. Work is underway to integrate the application with many other programs and resources.

• Flaws. At the moment, there are no convincing facts that would confirm that the assistant will work in accordance with the stated capabilities. All that the public now has are a few presentations from the developers.

• Flaws. At the moment, the assistant is not yet completely perfect in terms of searching for information. Questions may be misinterpreted. Reacts poorly to difficult questions. Can communicate what the weather is expected to be, but has difficulty understanding the phrase “Should I take an umbrella to work?”

• The humanity of the assistant. The assistant knows how to improvise well, has a set of good jokes, which is replenished, and you can easily conduct a relaxed dialogue with the assistant. In addition, the virtual assistant has a pleasant and truly humane voice. In the future, it may well become the best solution for domestic users.

Today's virtual assistants are constantly improving, have the ability to learn, and provide truly useful assistance in everyday and work matters. Work on updating and creating new assistants is ongoing, which suggests that the market will continue to develop steadily and rapidly.

A virtual assistant is software that performs tasks for the user. The first such systems appeared back in the 1980s, but the closest was the assistant installed on the very first IBM Watson smartphone, released back in 1994. And the very first voice assistant installed on a modern smartphone was Siri from Apple, introduced in October 2011.

Methods of working with virtual assistants:

• Text message. Common when working with chatbots.
• Voice command. As with Siri and many other modern voice assistants.
• Loading a specific image, as is the case on the latest S8 flagship.

Some virtual assistants offer users several options for working with them at once. So you can give commands to Google Assistant through Allo chat, and control home exercises with your voice through the Google Home speaker. Modern voice assistants use technology to recognize your normal voice, and also use machine learning techniques, being artificial intelligence.

The most common voice virtual assistants

Previous generations of virtual assistants had an avatar. Many (but not all) modern assistants also have their own characters, and their developers give the systems personalized names. Here are the most common, functional and dynamically developing virtual assistants:

These assistants are mostly compatible with the Internet of Things (the exceptions are M and Cortana), and have additional mobile application for work and can always be turned on (the exceptions are the same) for quick access to all their functionality.

Internet of Things gadgets for smart homes are created with support for working with such assistants. The choice of a virtual assistant and additional resources for it should be made taking into account the connected devices, because the management of the Internet of Things system is still not perfect. Some gadgets support some systems, others - others. To avoid confusion, you should stick to one system. In any case, until the most universal one finally appeared, which would unite them all.

Devices that support virtual assistants

Virtual assistants can be integrated on different types platforms. Or, as in the case of Amazon Alexa, work on several at once. Often virtual assistants are supported by the following platforms:

The functionality of the virtual assistant will be limited to the device itself and the operating system. At the same time, such assistants are developing and becoming multi-platform, making it very easy to switch between different compatible devices.

And a reliable accountant for our fictitious company. The business is back on its feet, in some places it has begun to grow, new clients arrive, there is a mountain of work, we return home late and irregularly, on weekends we amuse ourselves by completing tasks that were not completed during the work week. 1024 cups of espresso and a couple of sleepless nights later, voices in my head begin to whisper the magic word “delegation”. Having overcome difficult moral contradictions, about which Maxim Ilyakhov wrote well, the entrepreneur begins to look for a person who will help him break out of the routine. This person could be a secretary, personal assistant or business assistant.

The market offers a bunch of options, starting with web services and ending with full-time employees. We have done a little research and want to talk about popular options that will suit Moscow entrepreneurs ranging from micro to medium-sized businesses. Let's try to be objective and not pull the blanket on the Button, although this is not easy.

Online service exchanges

Virtual assistant

Virtual assistant services, like YourBees or Assistant, can take on slightly more complex tasks. These guys will book a hotel, order flowers for the woman they love, organize a holiday, and help find employees, suppliers, contractors and even real estate. It was not possible to find a clear boundary of the virtual assistant’s competencies - he will take on any legal assignments that do not require leaving the office. If you can’t do it yourself, he’ll help you find a contractor.

Another type of virtual assistant is a concierge service. Essentially, this is a premium virtual assistant that will be 146% more courteous, polite and diligent. Such services, as a rule, come in addition to elite brands like Vertu, Visa cards of the Gold level and higher, or membership in closed luxury clubs, so not everyone will be able to receive Holy Communion. We have never encountered such phenomena face to face, but they say that the quality is at the highest level. Maybe you have had such an experience?

Who is it suitable for?

What is the price

• From 5,000 rubles per month for a virtual secretary;
• from 500 rubles per hour of virtual assistant work;
• concierge service is priceless.

Links

Remote secretary

On the other hand, the secretarial profession does not require the same level of knowledge, skills and abilities that are required by an accountant and lawyer. You can hire an acquaintance, a neighbor's daughter, or a second great-nephew. The main thing is responsibility and discipline. It is advisable to enter into a civil law agreement to avoid legal battles.

Who is it suitable for?

What is the price

Employee on staff

If a secretary works hard and does more than is expected of him, there is a chance to earn the “personal assistant” or “business assistant” achievement. This person is needed not only and not so much for shifting pieces of paper and pressing buttons on the coffee machine. This is the same healthy head on which you can shift problems with the patient, a second memory and a third hand for an entrepreneur.

An assistant with the prefix “personal” is designed to fulfill the whims of an entrepreneur - order something somewhere, collect information, make an appointment, run and bring it (the clinical case is perfectly described in the first person). A “business class” assistant is, in fact, a miniature executive director who often knows more about the company’s operating activities than the business owner. He helps organize business processes, can independently communicate with clients and suppliers, and sometimes even make decisions and give advice to his boss.

This profession is not taught at university, so it is unlikely that you will be able to find a solution out of the box. If the level of an accountant and lawyer can be assessed at least by professional qualities, then choosing a personal assistant or business assistant requires a completely different approach. When selecting assistants for Button, we use tasks that help assess their horizons, erudition, mobility, ability to interact with people and work with new information. Simply put, you need to look for a person who loves and knows how to learn and is ready to work without job descriptions. This is the case when a person must organize the work of his manager, and not vice versa.

Who is it suitable for?

What is the price

40,000-80,000 rubles per month for a personal assistant/business assistant;

100,000 and above for a dude of the “let a pink pony fly to me on a rainbow Falcon 9 right now” class.

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What place does the Button occupy?

As development progressed, we rethought the role of the business assistant several times. At first he was perceived as a personal assistant, then as a secretary, but later, when our guys improved a lot, we realized that they were doing an excellent job with the tasks that a business assistant usually performs. Of course, a push-button assistant can still book a flight, find a good restaurant in an unfamiliar city, or sign up for a pedicure, but it can do more.

Working in a team with an accountant and lawyer, our business assistant will help build business processes right up to the launch of a new project or direction. We hire real superheroes, they constantly study, work with different businesses and, sometimes, know what you don’t expect from them. It’s unlikely that it will be possible to list everything without inflating the post into an unreadable footcloth, but you can read about a couple of real examples